One Pot Cheesy Pesto and Spinach Pasta

For those nights when you just don’t have the energy, this cheesy pesto and spinach pasta recipe is an absolute winner. It has very few ingredients and is made in just one pot. There’s barely even any chopping – pretty much all you need to do is chuck the ingredients in and stir!

Pasta meals like this always go down well. Really tasty, some veg to get the goodness in, cheesy, and easy. Kids love it, adults do too.

I actually wanted to use broccoli in this dish, but it turned out that I didn’t have any in the freezer. No problemo! I used frozen spinach instead and it was great. But, you could substitute the spinach for broccoli if that’s what you have available.

The Ingredients

• Garlic – to be honest, this is optional but adds a great depth of flavour.
• Vegetable stock – OR 800ml water and a vegetable stock cube
• Pasta – I used penne but any short pasta shape will do (I.e. not tagliatelle, spaghetti etc)
• Frozen spinach – as mentioned above, you could use frozen broccoli instead or even frozen peas (if you use peas, add them when you add the pesto otherwise they’ll overcook).
• Pesto – any green pesto will work wonderfully.
• Cheese – I have kept this vague here because really you can use whatever cheese you like. I used a mix of grated mozzarella and Parmesan, because that’s what I had leftover at the back of the fridge, but you could use cheddar, feta, goats cheese, even blue cheese or cream cheese!

Cooking the Pasta – Things to Note

1. Give it a stir Make sure you stir the pasta every now and then when it’s cooking. Because this is a one pot dish, we use less water to cook the pasta than normal (so that it doesn’t get too watery). Because of this, you’ll need to stir the pasta every so often to make sure that it doesn’t stick.
2. Don’t overcook Again, because you’re not draining the pasta, it’s going to carry on cooking in that lovely sauce while you add the pesto and cheese. For this reason, cook it until it’s slightly al dente before adding the pesto.
3. Don’t use fresh spinach It may seem crazy, but fresh spinach just won’t work in this dish. You’d need to use so much to get the same amount in as when you use frozen spinach, and you’d need to chop it. It would be such a faff. Frozen spinach is a great thing to have hanging around in the freezer for dishes like this!

More one pot recipes:

• One Pot Mexican Bean Stew
• Easy One Pot Saag Paneer
• One Pot Chorizo and Chickpea Stew
• One Pot Chicken, Bacon and Peas
• One Pot Bacon and Lentil Pasta
• One Pot Chorizo and Pea Pilaf
• One Pot Mushroom and Thyme Risotto
• One Pot Chicken and Green Olive Tagine
• One Pot Sausage, Pepper and Pea Pasta
• One Pot Sausage, Mushroom and Mozzarella Pasta